A Kingdom for Keflings to support in-game Avatars, dated for Nov. 19

2:21 PM on 11.07.2008   |   Jordan Devore

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Unlike certain other Xbox LIVE Arcade games which are set to incorporate Avatars in silly and frankly pointless ways when the New Xbox Experience drops on November 19, A Kingdom for Keflings (800 Microsoft Points) will make Avatars playable.

Ninjabee's A Kingdom for Keflings will launch alongside the NXE and allow you and three others to bring your Avatars online and build cities for the bite-sized Keflings, as seen above.

With so little media for the game available, it's hard to know exactly what the game will play like; it sort of reminds me of Doshin the Giant on a smaller scale.

At the very least, A kingdom for Keflings looks more unique than half of the stuff that goes up on XBLA.

A Kingdom for Keflings, the First Xbox 360 Game to Launch with Playable Avatars, Arrives on Nov. 19 with the New Xbox Experience

Giants in video games? Nothing new. But playing with your own doppelganger as the giant? That is something you can only do on Xbox LIVE Arcade.

From NinjaBee, the developer that brought fan favorites “Band of Bugs,” “Outpost Kaloki X” and “Cloning Clyde,” comes “A Kingdom for Keflings,” a new twist to the city-building game genre where you play as a giant working to turn a village of Keflings into a metropolis.

The Xbox LIVE Arcade game, launching on Nov. 19 with the New Xbox Experience, is the first Xbox 360 title to ship with playable, in-game Avatars. “A Kingdom for Keflings” also comes packed with custom animations tailored for Avatars and player-controlled social emotes. The game supports 4-player Xbox LIVE multiplayer with each friend using a custom Avatar, and works perfectly with Xbox LIVE Party.

But Avatar inclusion is just half the fun. In this innovative, Medieval-era city-builder, giants start out with a small village and a handful (literally!) of helpful Keflings who are tiny humanoids that follow the player’s commands and try not to get stepped on. Fun and direct interaction with Keflings includes carrying them around, assigning them jobs and training them to do simple tasks. The game features extensive customization of the city through personally constructing and painting each building and decorating the village with additional elements such as trees, statues and more. Players will have to collect and manage resources to build their village into a full-fledged city.

Other key features of the game include:

    * The ability to build cities online cooperatively with up to 3 friends
    * Stylized animated graphics that change with the seasons and season-based gameplay
    * A dynamic-music soundtrack (which adapts to the season and the state of the village)

Developed by NinjaBee, “A Kingdom for Keflings” will be available for 800 Microsoft Points worldwide. The game is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.

As always, for more information about the New Xbox Experience, including a Developer Diary detailing how Avatars will be used in games, please visit http://www.xbox.com/en-US/live/nxe.